A Journey of Discovery

Camping is…

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Camping is…

For some, camping is a tent in the woods. For me, it’s 50 amp service for my amenities on wheels.

For some, it’s fishing by day and cooking your catch by night. For me, it’s painting my nails at the picnic table having already found the perfect pre-formed burgers for David to throw on the grill and a nice pre-fab bucket potato salad.
Camping is lazy days and even lazier nights. It’s sunflower seeds and beer. Usually too much of both. Proof of that comes from the raw tongue and swollen ankles.
Camping is waking up because the birds are being too damn noisy for me to sleep any longer but getting out of bed (not a sleeping bag) only after David turns the radio up to get-out-of-bed-you-lazy-people volume and starts naggin’ me for coffee. Does the early bird get the worm because the worm is still sleeping? Lucky worm.
Camping is…no watches, we eat when we get hungry, sleep when we get sleepy; no cell phones, everybody we’d want to talk to is already here; no showers, oh wait, we have a shower. And some of us actually use it.
No schedules, no commitments. The biggest worry is if it’s going to rain out our campfire and whether the black tank is actually full or there’s just TP stuck to the sensors.
The kids are free to do their thing, whatever that is. Sometimes it’s collecting muscle shells from the lake beach or acorns from a campsite tree.The tree climbing is like none other but usually ends in more than a few scrapes and tears. And more often than not, someone takes home evidence of poison ivy.
It’s not camping if someone doesn’t get cut, bit or infected. But hey, when you have air conditioning, who cares?